Vampires in other countries

Vampires around the world

Introduction

This piece explores the rich diversity of vampire belief in many countries around the world.

People mostly believe that vampires come from Transylvania in Eastern Europe and have the power of transforming themselves into blood-drinking bats. The old films and novels are to blame for the overdone cliches and misconception. Whilst there are tales of the undead in Eastern Europe, they are not called vampires, they go with other names and the blood-drinking bat is only native of South America.

The first appearance of the word Vampire as Vampyre in English dates from 1734, from a travel document called Travels of Three English Gentlemen published in The Harleian Miscellany in 1745. The London Journal of March 11, 1732 describes vampyres in Hungary (actually northern Serbia occupied by the Austrian empire) as creatures sucking the blood out of the living. French and German literature at the time already mentioned vampires. When Austria controlled Northern Serbia in 1718 officials would talk of 'vampire killing practices' such as exhuming bodies and staking. These reports from 1725 and 1732 spread very quickly. The English term possibly was derived from the French word vampyre  and from the German vampir or derived in the early 18th century from the Serbian word vampir. There are many parallels of the word in the Slavic languages such as Czech and Slovak upir and Russian or Ukranian upyr.  The actual etymology is still unclear. There is a proposed theory that the Slavic languages borrowed the word from a Turkish word or term for 'witch'.

Vampires are and have always been metaphors for our greatest fears, primarily death. It is also a metaphor for our curiosity with life after death, is there salvation or punishment?
The idea of the dead returning was often thought of by people who missed their dearly departed so much they would wish to see them again but that wish would go against most religious dogmas of the time, as a dead person coming back to life was un-natural and would upset the balance of nature.
If they would return it would be to right a wrong, gain revenge or watch over loved ones. When they would return would be on certain auspicious days and times. Much like in the belief of ghosts and demons, midnight or three in the morning would be ideal times for spirits to cross over. In the Celtic lore, festivals such as May Eve and Samhain (October 31 now known as Halloween) would be days were spirits would be able to roam the earth. These were dates on which seasons changed. In Germany the night of Walpurgisnacht on April 30 was also the night of spirits.

With the spread of Christianity, any returning dead or mention was outlawed and taboo. The belief that someone would return from the dead to harm the living was possible only if that person had committed great sins in life or if they were infidels and foreigners.

The belief of vampires stem from the lack of scientific knowledge about the decomposition of dead bodies and stages of decay. A fresh body would still appear 'alive' to superstitious villagers and be mistaken for a vampire. There are villagers in remote areas of Eastern Europe that still today believe in vampires and still resort to 'vampire killing practices' of exhuming, staking and burning a body.

The returning dead eventually became the revenants, ghosts, demons, zombies and vampires.
If the returning dead were angry and vengeful or jealous of the living they would harm them often by stealing their lives, killing them or sucking their bodily fluids. The idea was to 'take' something from the living and making them suffer. So the vampire must suck the blood of the living.

In many other cultures, vampires won't just drink from the neck, they will go for the arms, legs, wrists any part of the body. Sometimes it is not only blood they drink. In some cultures vampires, would drink vital fluids such as semen and vaginal juices usually from young men and women. Sometimes they'll just suck the soul or life force or breath from humans.

This piece celebrates vampires in their wildest possible context: their diversity and cultural distinctiveness all across the world.
The vampires you will encounter here are quite different from the typical Dracula or others from the movies, novels and TV series.




Part 1: Europe

Germany/Austria

The Nachtzehrer and the Blautsauger

Generally vampires in Germany closely resemble the vampires in Slavic culture, Slavic expansion was responsible for many European folklore and superstitions being very similar.The Nachtzeherer or 'Night Waster' was the vampire of Northern Germany. In Bavaria it was called the Blautsauger 'blood sucker'. This vampire was a revenant, a recently deceased person returning from the grave to attack the living, usually family and village acquaintances. It originated from an unnatural death, such as suicide or accidental. A child born with a caul would be destined to become a vampire later in life. In the tomb the Nachtzehrers were known to chew on their extremities.Much like the Ghoul of Middle Eastern folkore, it would chew on other bodies near its tomb. Upon inspection of bodies, the coffin would be opened to reveal a preserved body in a pool of blood because the vampire would have gorged itself with blood and unable to retain all of it. Several methods would be used to prevent the vampire from rising, such as placing bricks in the mouth, coins on the eyes, driving spikes through the head or heart in order to pin the body to the coffin.

The belief in the Blautsauger even survived until 1980s in Rural Bavaria.
It's appearance resembled the description of a zombie. In Bavarian folklore unbaptized people would become vampires, even those who ate meat of an animal killed by a wolf. Animals who jumped over fresh burial grounds or during a funeral would cause a person to come back as a vampire.

Residents were said to stay indoors and smear their doors with garlic and place hawthorn on their door to protect themselves from attack. The best way to kill them was a stake through the heart.

The following are vampire-like creatures and mostly mythical creatures from Germanic and Austrian folklore and pre-Christian beliefs.

Germany, Austria and the Black forest are the idyllic environment for unforgettable stories like the fairy tales of the Grimm Brothers. The Brothers' tales have always been dark and well 'grim'. these tales were read and told by peasants from generations to generations and sanitized by English Victorians or 'disneyfied'.  It is believed that originally these tales were full of horror or gothic elements such as werewolves, child abducting goblins and cannibalistic witches. These creatures were said to dwell in the dark forests of Germany.

Cannibalism is very present in the fairy tales, with the child eating Ogre from Perrault's Le Petit Poucet to the cannibal witch in Hansel and Gretel and the goblin who wants a child but for what purpose in Rumpelstiltskin? Both stories were written by the Grimm brothers.


The Woodwives

These creatures resembled fairies or were more likely elemental forces or spirits of the forest. Tall, elegant, dressed in green and wearing white and deathly pale complexions. They had claws and would attack travelers, drinking their blood. Huntsmen, woodcutters were ideal victims. Tales of the discoveries of bodies of men with their throats cut out were common in the 16th and 17th centuries. Though skeptics stated these were wolf attacks, superstitious peasants strongly believed the wood wives were responsible. Like many other creatures who prey on humans, they were drawn to small children and babies, these were easier prey who couldn't fight back. They only drank small amounts of blood when preying on children and the children would grow weak or sickly. When a child displayed irritable behaviour or mood swings her condition was often blamed on the wood wives. The best way to dispel them was to burn wood as this would hurt them.

(Warning the following articles might ruin Christmas for you)


(though some of these creatures might not be vampiric, they still are bloodthirsty and scary, they are scary variations of popular Christmas characters)

The Tomten

German folklore often mentions gnomes, goblins, elves, dwarves and trolls, these were called the 'little people'. While some were good-natured, others were vicious. It was believed that they took care of farms and animals rewarding the people with sweets. This all worked through a system of reciprocity, if the tomten was regularly fed with porridge then he was kind but if the feeding was forgotten especially on Christmas eve then he would exact vengeance by slaughtering the animals and even the people, variations of the legend say that he would drink the blood. The Tomten were little men dressed in red and they would attack travelers on lonely forest roads. The belief in these little men is also common in Sweden. It was believed that these little men were the servants of ancient beings that were perhaps worshiped as ancient fertility gods by ancient German tribes. The Nacht Ruprecht was a figure adorned in straw and antlers. Another entity was Schwartz Peeter who was described as a black, muscular male like a blacksmith.  The Tomten were sent by these 'gods' to kill travelers, they would beat their victims with sticks and lap the blood like dogs. They would bring back the hearts to their masters.

A depiction of the Tomten.



Nacht Ruprecht would manifest during the winter months. He would come to the windows of houses and terrify the inhabitants simply by peering in. He would be followed by his servant George Oaf, who carried a whip, himself followed by the Tomten. They would altogether travel the countryside killing those they encountered, they would do this as a terrifying reminder for humans to worship them and those who complied were rewarded.
The idea of people venerating a deity that rewarded worshipers did not sit too well with the Church during the spread of Christianity, so they decided to adapt this concept their way. The character of St Nicholas was chosen. The bloodthirsty Tomten were now attached to the Christian Saint, but they still kept their mischievous ways. In some parts of Germany St Nicholas was nown as 'Buller Claus' (Belled Nicholas) because he carried bells and chains. When he approached houses, the Tomten would rouse the sleeping children, drag them out and ask them questions on the Catechism. Any wrong answer or unanswered question would result in punishment, the children would be beaten with sharp sticks, St Nicholas would pelt them with hard coals until they bled and the Tomten licked the blood from their wounds. If the children answered correctly they were rewarded with apples, oranges or sweetmeat. Over time the image of the Tomten softened and they became the Christmas elves or Santa's little helpers. The images of Nacht Rupert and George Oaf were transformed into St Nicholas and eventually Santa Claus!

Belsnickel was a being very similar to Santa Claus but quite scary in appearance, though he was kind and a gift giver he would knock loudly on doors and yell to be let in. This habit of his would frighten certain people. Other times he would be let in and give presents to good children and leave sticks for the naughty ones. He would sometimes kidnap the truly nasty ones and take them to the forest to wip them. His appearance was described as black faced and shaggy.


Frau Perchta

Depicted as a veiled wandering woman or an old crone, Frau Perchta would roam around during Christmas night in Austria and Bavaria giving silver coins to good children and killing the naughty ones. She would slice open the stomach of the child and fill it with straw and stones. She was often accompanied by demons called Straggele who would carry out her orders to punish naughty children. Sometimes the demons would just torment them or rip them apart.

A depiction of Frau Perchta having sliced a child's stomach and removing the innards.



Krampus was the evil counterpart to Santa, instead of rewarding good children, this beast-like creature, often represented as a demon, would capture naughty children and carry them away in his sack. He was believed to eat them sometimes wiping them and dragging them to hell.

Depictions of saint Nicholas and Krampus

In Austria and Germany people dress up as the demon and have parades.

A poster for the movie

The Alp

The fear of the returning dead has always been prevalent in Germanic folklore. The dead were seen as hostile and could devour the living, same concept as the vampire.  It was believed that the dead tore or ate through their own funeral shrouds and dug through their own graves to other graves and eat other bodies. They could also dig their way out and attack the living, which is why at the time, preparing a body for burial was extremely important. The shroud had to be well sewn.  The images of bloodthirsty dwarves, gnawing dead and dark fairies got mixed together to create the malignant vampire beings.

The Alp is a confusing and contradictory figure, surrounded in mystery and inconsistency, this creature was either an elemental spirit or a tomtin. In Austria it was believed to be the spirit of a dead person driven by dark forces. Other areas describe him as a little old man or a dark shapes-shifting wizard who turned into a cat or a bird. In some areas of Austria, he would rape young women just like the Incubi. Mostly male, the Alp was believed to be a dead person and would attack his loved ones. It would sometimes go about as a dog or a werewolf, sometimes it wore horns or a hat on its head. If a man turned into an Alp it was often blamed on the mother, she may have sinned during pregnancy, eaten forbidden berries or being frightened by a black dog.
It was widely believed that a child born with a caul could become a vampiric creature. The caul was a film or thin membrane across the face of the baby. In other countries this was considered a lucky sign but in other European countries a sign of evil. Hairy palms on an infant might also signal future vampirism or sexual deviancy as hairy palms in modern urban legends is a characteristic of a masturbator.

The Alp had many powers, he was believed to be the companion of witches and like familiars was sent out in the guise of animals to do evil. In Austria and other parts of Germany, vampires were believed to control dreams, make people sleepwalk and torment humans. Because of such powers the Alp possessed he was associated with the German Mara, a horse like entity with powers over sleep and dreams that is behind the origin of the word 'nightmare'. The Alp did not just drink blood he also drank bodily fluids such as semen and attacked strong young men. He would also suck the milk from nursing mothers. It was believed that it had three legs and would attack cattle.

Protection against such an entity was difficult and almost impossible. A holy relic or crucifix could be effective in driving him away, but since this creature was older than Christianity itself, it didn't work. Salt sprinkled across doorways and windowsills was effective in denying him access. If the Alp was a spirit of a dead person, then the grave and body was found and destroyed or burnt. If the Alp was a living person, then stabbing it above the right eye would kill it as that area was the source of his powers. Destroying the witch who controlled the Alp was also effective.

In the 18th century, Austria and many European countries were gripped with vampire hysteria. Cemeteries were violated and bodies were burnt as superstitious villagers sought out vampires who  were attacking them. According to historians, this mass panic was due to the spread of diseases such as tuberculosis.

This painting called 'Nachtmahr' (Nightmare) by Johann Heinrich Fussli is the best representation of the Alp as both an Incubi and the horse entity that is responsible for nightmares.

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